56KBPS Records celebrates its 5th anniversary with Format.DF, a compilation album where we present music from the first edition of Format DF, the biggest Chiptune festival to date in Latin America, that took place in Mexico City in November 2013, plus many tracks from our friends in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala and Spain.

“Almost two years ago, two or three chip musicians and a couple of Chiptune backers/aficionados met in a small apartment located in the heart of Mexico City thinking over what the future of the Mexican scene would be like. Gecko, one of the veterans, came up with this phrase: “It’s 8bit time!” Someone else muttered: “Chido-Chip”*. Almost two and a half years ago I received an email from Chema Padilla, founder of 56kbps Records, whom I met sometime later in a pizza place. He described his record label, he talked about an international art collective: “Chipotle Collective”. “We almost have no activity in the real world” he concluded. Almost a year ago, inside a room decorated with books and old consoles, five members of Chipotle Collective were worried to death. Long-distance calls. -“Are you coming then Alex Powrs?” -“Sure thing”. Plane ticket money, the list with the names of the musicians, savings… Suddenly, organizing a festival didn`t seem like something completely impossible: “FORMAT DF”. Almost ten years ago (ten years ago!) I used to stick my cassette tape recorder to the TV speakers hoping to capture a fragment of the soundtrack of Megaman III. The end result was less than good but I listened to it anyway. Some time ago, said time ago, Numbers, names, images, dates… The memory (and a hyperlink) remains with us so we can keep going.”

Format.DF is a chipmusic festival hosted in Mexico City, and the biggest event of its kind in Latin America to date. It’s an independent effort by 56KBPS Records and Chipotle Collective that brings together in one place local and international musicians and visual artists.

Chipocrite - 3P

In honor of the exciting announcement at this year’s E3 conference that EarthNight (a rogue-like runner game for which I’m composing an entire soundtrack!) is coming to PS4 in the not-too-distant future, I’m releasing this celebratory three-song EP. This mini-album also serves as a preview of my next full-length release. It features an early multi-instrumental version of “Truce,” the song from the trailer announcing the game’s release, a Game Boy-only version of live favorite “Little Computer People,” which will be in the game AND on my next album with some extra instrumentation, and the brand new “Astronaut High School,” which will be exclusive to this EP and the EarthNight soundtrack.

Three songs, my third release, in honor of E3… 3P.

Chipocrite, a.k.a. Paul Weinstein, uses original Nintendo Game Boy technology, often accompanied by guitar, bass guitar and/or other lo-fi sequencers, to create and perform complex audio masterpieces. His multifaceted but catchy compositions combine the nostalgic game sounds of his childhood with modern music influences. Since emerging from the Philadelphia chip scene just a few years ago, Chipocrite has performed at numerous renowned events and conventions including the Vans Warped Tour, Blip Festival, MAGFest and AnimeNEXT; provided soundtracks for commercials — including a nationally televised GameStop ad — as well as video games and online videos; appeared as the musical guest on popular tech-centric Web talk-show series “On The Verge” — and much more.

‘Lost Tapes 1’ is a compilation of zabutom’s early work during 2000-2005 from various demoscene releases, cracktros and chipdisks. Made with a wide variety of platforms spanning oldschool MS-DOS trackers, C64 and NES, it showcases an equally diverse spectrum of emotional and technical visions.

Natural born electronic music maker active since the mid 90s, specialized in working with old videogame hardware.

The album includes 12 of my best tracks for 2014 and it includes an interactive episode of Dark and Darko!

Hi! It’s Carf Darko! Old-school gamer with a passion for music, blips, bleeps and pixels!
My sounds, mostly 8bit inspired, are what you could describe as something along the lines of MegaMan Rock music.
I started creating music digitally about 19 years ago and after a long journey through sounds I finally found my style
about 2 years ago, and now I am here to stay until the music stops! It has been a very interesting journey and it’s great
to be able to combine my love for oldschool gaming and audio and blend it into crazy projects!

My music has been used by various awesome Youtubers like MatPat from Gametheory, Gaijin Goombam, VintageBeef and other awesome
creators! It has also been played at IGN’s Playstation Podcast BEYOND (episode 248) and I only can wonder what is next!
The version that you are reading about now will be my very first time that I participate on a project like this, and it feels pretty awesome!

Pixel Me Square (The Game)

DRM-Free, Windows

In this game you will be able to visit Carf’s world! Walk around in my new studio, read background info about my projects and help Devion test his latest invention, the VST! After surviving Devion’s test you will be able to visit the release party of the album, talk to tons of my friends and fans and listen to the full album in-game!

Few things as instantaneous and powerful as a beam of light. It flies before us at an astounding velocity; but, at the same time, it leaves a trace of awe and the warmth of its traveling rooted in our hearts, just like good music.
Turbo Luminescence is one of those albums which won’t allow our feet to rest from the very beginning. Speed is the premise on this record, not in that sense of haste and untidiness, but in its purest form of life, joy and motion.

Chiptune artists Popcornkid!, from Mexico, and Mizkai, from the UK, have found a way to enhance the melodic motors of each other compositions with fuel of emotion; and you can tell from each one of the seven tracks that conform this production: they are like a chiptune Ferrari, speeding in your ears at hundreds of beats per minute; precise machinery of agile and aerodynamic rhythm held together by the enormous amount of passion which is a signature of both musicians.
In this rush of sound, we have no choice but to accelerate our heart beats in time with the music, for, as in life as in art, only the fast may succeed.

Goto80 - Files In Space

Prolific and long-standing lo-fi musician and artist goto80 has been releasing his own brand of glitched, lo-res beats and imagery since 1992. His new album, Files In Space is released in June 2014 via Data Airlines delivering 58 solid minutes of jazz, pop, IDM, electro and chipmusic in a low-resolution melting pot of brand new material.
Goto80’s expansive back catalogue ranges across over 20 years and sees releases on some of chipmusic and electronica’s most respected labels alongside audio-visual collaborations and work with such notable artists as Raquel Meyers, Dan Brännvall, The C-Men and Entter.
As well as being a prominent researcher and blogger in the demoscene, chipmusic and text art communities, Goto80’s musical, academic and artistic works have seen him perform and exhibit at a range of high-profile events including Transmediale, MOMI in New York, Gogbot, Mapping Festival, Blip Tokyo, Hultsfred Festival and hundreds of other locations around Europe, the USA, Australia and the Middle East.
Files in Space’ 13 tracks of low-resolution electronica echo Goto80’s signature style whilst simultaneously traversing some unfamiliar territory. Ranging from the 80’s tinged funk stylings of Space Bromance right the way to the franticly unpredictable and distinctly platform-game-esque sound of Furniture Adventures and the near 12 mniute SID-funk opus of Mega Amiga, Files in Space marks a defining moment in Goto80’s already impressive and extensive career with what promises to be one of the most talked about lo-fi electronic releases of 2014.

Goto80 is a Swedish old media artist and researcher who works with music and text. He was one of the pioneers of the new 8-bit music movement in the 1990s and now makes music for performances and records, games, demos, movies and art projects. His music is like a low-res explosion of styles, influenced by equal amounts of high-brow jazz/IDM and silly pop culture. He’s been seen on childrens TV singing falsetto as a salad man, giving theoretical talks on 8-bit culture and creativity, performed a musical together with a jazz band, released music in cheese burgers, and opened the notorious art festival Transmediale with a fax performance. To name just a few things.
His work is often described as a “misuse of dead technologies” but he doesn’t agree with that. Goto80 prefers to see old technologies as very much alive. After all, they still work great unlike your 5-year-old smartphone. And the symbiosis between user and 8-bit machine is like a leap into the unknown, while modern tools are often a straight path into the predictable. So he encourages to normalize the behaviour of the Turing complete user rather than that of the modern consumer. This attitude comes from a long schooling of creative hacking and free distribution in the 8-bit demoscene, and a strong interest in media materialism as developed in his master thesis on chipmusic.
Goto80 has an unhealthy obsession of doing things the wrong way. In the 1990′s he insisted on doing broken music for the perfectionist hacker demoscene. For his first solo live show at a local rave he was kicked off the stage. More recently he decided to quit Facebook in protest, despite fans begging him to stay. He’s made several releases that are almost impossible to get hold.

Chema64 - Ghost In The Machine

Record single composed for Gameboy in September 2013, inspired by and derivative artwork taken from “Sweet Home”

Musician and designer from Mexico City that recycles obsolete technology and ephemera to make multemedia art. He’s the founder of Diablero and 56KBPS Records netlabels, and co-founder of Colectivo Chipotle and Format.DF Festival.

Zalza - All Good Things (Special Charity Edition)

“All good things EP” is an exclusive release by Zalza for the Chiptune+Charity 5 bundle. It includes a mix of specially composed new, glitchy versions of Zalzas chiptune tracks ‘Stal Mormor’, ‘C64 Attack’, ‘Big Momma’, ‘Afternoon Pr0n’ as well as two brand new tracks ‘Disco-overy’ and ‘Flying Cars and Hoverboards’.

Alexander Bulér aka Zalza is a Swedish chiptune musician. He’s been active in the computer music scene since 1997 and is a part of the demogroup Titan. His compositions are acknowledged in productions by Razor 1911 and Data Airlines (The Knife Tribute EP). Residing in Stockholm Zalza enjoys life and besides chip music he craves vintage computer games and any sound that can be made into music. Zalza has released a full length album, a couple of ep’s and has given YouTube such classics as the 2204355 Chicken Man meme.

Chema64 Live Streaming Video Performance

MP3, FLAC

As promised in bonus #2, Chema64 will be live streaming a performance on this page below on Wednesday July 16th at 7pm PST.

Musician and designer from Mexico City that recycles obsolete technology and ephemera to make multemedia art. He’s the founder of Diablero and 56KBPS Records netlabels, and co-founder of Colectivo Chipotle and Format.DF Festival.

Zabutom - New Beginnings

Presenting Zabutom - New Beginnings (DATA028). A new 6 track EP by Zabutom including a Dubmood remix

Natural born electronic music maker active since the mid 90s, specialized in working with old videogame hardware.

Unlocked

Chema64 Live Streaming Video Performance

MP3, FLAC

As promised in bonus #2, Chema64 will be live streaming a performance on this page below on Wednesday July 16th at 7pm PST.

Musician and designer from Mexico City that recycles obsolete technology and ephemera to make multemedia art. He’s the founder of Diablero and 56KBPS Records netlabels, and co-founder of Colectivo Chipotle and Format.DF Festival.

Unlocked

Zalza - All Good Things (Special Charity Edition)

“All good things EP” is an exclusive release by Zalza for the Chiptune+Charity 5 bundle. It includes a mix of specially composed new, glitchy versions of Zalzas chiptune tracks ‘Stal Mormor’, ‘C64 Attack’, ‘Big Momma’, ‘Afternoon Pr0n’ as well as two brand new tracks ‘Disco-overy’ and ‘Flying Cars and Hoverboards’.

Alexander Bulér aka Zalza is a Swedish chiptune musician. He’s been active in the computer music scene since 1997 and is a part of the demogroup Titan. His compositions are acknowledged in productions by Razor 1911 and Data Airlines (The Knife Tribute EP). Residing in Stockholm Zalza enjoys life and besides chip music he craves vintage computer games and any sound that can be made into music. Zalza has released a full length album, a couple of ep’s and has given YouTube such classics as the 2204355 Chicken Man meme.